Russia’s apoplexy over biological research – Implications for the BTWC and its Articles V and VI
Since the summer, Russia has been adding chapters to the history of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) with its allegations of treaty violations against Ukraine and the USA. So far, it has culminated in convening a Formal Consultative Committee (FCM) under BTWC Article V in September and filing an Article VI complaint accompanied by a draft resolution proposing an investigative commission with the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in October. The FCM was inconclusive because states parties reached no consensus on whether Moscow’s allegations have merit. Notwithstanding, a large majority of participating states rejected the accusations in their …
Maintaining treaty integrity in the face of biological disinformation warfare
Russia has called for a Formal Consultative Meeting under the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) to address its (fake) accusations against the US and Ukraine concerning biological research programmes. This meeting will start on Monday, 5 September. Treaties are like Roses, published in CBRNe World, August 2022, pp. 61-64b [From the introduction] Article V of the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) foresees in consultation and cooperation among states parties to address any problem concerning the implementation of the disarmament treaty. The First BTWC Review Conference (1980) agreed on the concept of a consultative meeting at the expert …
Catapulting Cadavers: A Medieval Practice of Biological Warfare?
Introduction to Historical Notes, Issue #2 The Mongol siege of Caffa in 1346 is closely associated with the spread of the plague epidemic to continental Europe and northern Africa. A major Genoese trading post in the Crimea, its citizens escaped via the Black Sea and the Bosporus, eventually bringing the Black Death to Mediterranean ports from where it spread inland or onward to coastal cities in west and north Europe, eventually reaching even Iceland. Bad as the medieval pandemic was, its transfer to the Mediterranean basin some authors have attributed to an act of warfare: the catapulting of plague-ridden corpses …
Prelude to chemical weapons use?
Late yesterday evening, adviser to Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Anton Garashchenko tweeted that Russia was using chemical weapons (CW) against the defenders of the encircled Black Sea town of Mariupol. Another statement, reportedly from the Azov regiment – notorious for its neo-Nazi ideology – defending the city, mentioned respiratory failure and vestibulo-atactic syndrome. There are references to dissemination of a toxic substance by a drone, but also that the incident has had no disastrous health consequences. Clearly, whatever the incident may have been, it is not (yet) a situation whereby Russia has unleashed CW, as a British tabloid was …
de Mussi and the Siege of Caffa: Origin of a Biological Warfare Allegation
The plague pandemic that hit central and western Asia, the Mediterranean societies and western and northern Europe in the middle of the 14th century features in all present-day historical narratives of chemical and biological warfare. To many writers those events underscore the potential of massive destruction in terms of both human and economic losses to societies. They also tend to ascribe the pandemic’s origin to a specific deed, namely the catapulting of diseased bodies into the Crimean town of Caffa by Mongol besiegers in 1346. Fleeing citizens carried what became known as the ‘Black Death’ to Mediterranean ports from where …
Apparently major chemical weapons attack near Damascus reported
As I am writing, disturbing news reports are coming in of a major chemical attack on the eastern eastern outskirts of Damascus (Ghouta district). According to images and film footage posted to the Internet by opponents to the al-Assad regime, many casualties, including fatalities can be seen. Supplementary visual testimony strongly indicates poisoning. [Images are graphic and should be viewed with caution!] In past blog postings and commentaries I have been sceptical of CW claims, because the narrative accompanying images and film footage did not correspond with what could be seen. More importantly, a number of things one would expect …
Roundtable invitation: Syria’s Chemical Demilitarization
INVITATION Syria’s Chemical Demilitarization: Progress, Challenges, and Lessons A Roundtable Discussion with Dr. Paul F. Walker, Amb. Serguei Batsanov, Dr. Ralf Trapp, & Dr. Jean Pascal Zanders Introductory Remarks by Dr. Alexander Likhotal Organized by Green Cross International, Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, and the Chemical Weapons Convention Coalition Monday, May 19, 2014, 17:00-19:00 WMO Building, 7 bis avenue de la Paix, 2d floor Vieira de Mello auditorium Syria’s accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in September 2013 made it the 190th State Party to the Convention with only six countries now remaining outside the treaty regime. …
Must the Belgian babies be bayoneted all over again?
August, 100 years ago: the Hun from the east invaded little, neutral Belgium. In the opening weeks of the campaign the Hun was not a good boy. He wilfully executed civilians, raped women, destroyed historical monuments and burned down university libraries—all war crimes that have been extensively documented. The worst barbarian acts, however, he committed against babies. He cut off their hands, so that the grownup man could never take up arms against the Hunnic master. Worse, he tossed them in the air and caught them on his bayonet. Alas, each investigated claim proved to be a myth. Meanwhile, many …
Syria: Disarmament in animated suspense
Syria has now missed about every single deadline since it was unable to move the Priority 1 chemicals out of the country by the end of last year. These even include renegotiated time frames and the self-imposed final date of 27 April. One more fixed date is pending: 30 June, by which time all precursor chemicals should have been neutralised. It would now seem that the world will sigh with relief if everything is aboard the Danish and Norwegian freighters by the end of next month. US officials envisage 60 working days to neutralise the volume of precursor chemicals and …
Chlorine: A weapon of last resort for ISIL?
Over the past few weeks several press reports have suggested that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have resorted to chlorine use in attacks in Iraq and Syria. The grouping is no stranger to chlorine. In some earlier incarnation it was known as al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and later it rebranded itself as the Islamic State of Iraq when it explicitly began trying to control territory. Harsh imposition of its strict interpretation of Sharia law and extreme violence towards anybody refusing total subjugation to its rule soon had Sunni tribal leaders uniting in resistance early in …